Massachusetts Fitchburg, Jeremiah Oliver-5

[meme]

Jeremiah Oliver Missing For Months; Mother Charged In Disappearance

Posted: 12/17/2013
Updated: 12/17/2013

A Massachusetts woman and her boyfriend have been arrested in the disappearance of the woman's 5-year-old son.

Elsa Oliver, 28, and Alberto L. Sierra, 22, are facing a slew of charges, according to the Boston Globe. Oliver's son, Jeremiah Oliver, was last seen on September 14. On Friday, his 7-year-old sister told a teacher it had been months since she'd seen her younger brother, My Fox Boston reported.

A judge ordered the Fitchburg mother to bring her son to court on Monday, but she did not.

"Right now we're treating this as a very serious crime, actually a potential homicide," Worcester County District Attorney Joe Early told NECN.

Oliver is charged with reckless endangerment of a child and accessory after the fact. Sierra, who is accused of abusing Elsa Oliver as well as Jeremiah and his sister, is charged with assault and battery and assault and battery on a child.

Jeremiah Oliver is 3 feet, 4 inches tall and 40 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 508-832-9124 or 978-345-9648.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/jeremiah-oliver-missing-_n_4459224.html

[meme]

Jeremiah Oliver, Missing Boy, Was Supposed To Get Regular Social Worker Visits

A social worker skipped regularly planned visits to a Massachusetts boy who authorities recently learned has been missing for months.

Jeremiah Oliver, of Fitchburg, was last seen in September and police fear that he's been murdered. His mother and her boyfriend have been accused of a slew of charges related to his disappearance, but a state agency responsible for protecting endangered children has come under scrutiny for its handling of the case too, CNN reports.

Oliver, his brother and sister were supposed to receive monthly visits from a caseworker with the Department of Children and Families. The last time the unnamed caseworker -- who has since been fired -- saw Oliver was in May, the Boston Globe reported. The worker checked in on the family again in November. She had been told in June that the boy had gone to live with family in Florida, but didn't verify if that was true, according to the Globe.

The search for the missing child began last week and yesterday more than 100 volunteers combed through the snowy neighborhood where Oliver lived, the Sentinel & Enterprise reported.

Authorities learned that Oliver had vanished on December 2 when his 8-year-old sister told school counselors that her mother's boyfriend had physically hurt her and another brother.

The sister and other brother were taken from the home of their mother, Elsa Oliver, and her boyfriend, Alberto Sierra, and put in protective custody. Police asked about Jeremiah's whereabouts and his mother allegedly claimed that he was living in Florida.

The mother was ordered to appear in court, but refused to answer questions about her missing child. When she failed to return to court with Jeremiah three days later, she was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment of a child and accessory after the fact. Sierra, 22, who is accused of abusing Elsa as well as the children, is charged with assault and battery on a child.

Jose Oliver, Jeremiah's biological father, told the Sentinel & Enterprise that he hasn't seen his son in years because of a restraining order against him taken out by Elsa.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/22/jeremiah-oliver-missing_n_4489377.html

[meme]

Jeremiah Oliver’s dad faces heroin rap

BAD NEWS: Jose Oliver, above, father of missing Fitchburg 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver, was arrested in Connecticut on charges of selling heroin to undercover cops.

Friday, January 3, 2014

The father of missing Fitchburg boy Jeremiah Oliver — who is seeking custody of his two other kids while authorities search in vain for the 5-year-old — has been arrested in Connecticut on charges he sold heroin to undercover cops, police said.

Jose Oliver was arrested Monday on felony charges, said New Britain, Conn., police Capt. Thomas Steck.

“He did have three bundles, or 30 bags, of heroin,” Steck said.

Oliver was released and will be arraigned within 10 business days of his arrest on charges including possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school or day care, and criminal intent to sell narcotics, Steck said.

Steck said officers, acting on information that Oliver was selling drugs, set up the “street rip” that led to the arrest.

Oliver, 41, could not be reached for comment yesterday. His brother, Sandrino Oliver, of Worcester, declined to comment.

Oliver told the Herald last week he is seeking custody of his other son and daughter, who are currently in the care of Massachusetts child-welfare officials. He said a hearing had been set for Jan. 10.

Jeremiah, who authorities fear is dead, lived with his mother, Elsa Oliver, 28, and her boyfriend, Alberto Sierra Jr., 23, in Fitchburg. He was last seen Sept. 14 — but police and state officials did not know he was missing until last month.

Sierra is accused of assault and battery on a child, and Elsa Oliver is charged as an accessory after the fact.

Three employees of the Department of Children and Families have been fired and a fourth has been demoted and suspended in the agency’s badly botched handling of the case. Officials say the family’s social worker regularly skipped monthly visits, and the demoted manager decided not to investigate after multiple reports of abuse and neglect in the Oliver family.

bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/jeremiah_oliver_s_dad_faces_heroin_rap

[meme]

Father of missing Fitchburg boy arrested in CT for allegedly trafficking heroin

The father of Jeremiah Oliver, the missing five-year-old boy from Fitchburg, was arrested in Connecticut on drug trafficking charges just days before he was due in a Massachusetts courtroom to seek custody of his two other children, official said.

Jose Oliver was arrested and charged with possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school, and criminal attempt of sale of narcotics, according to New Britain Police Department Lieutenant Jeanette Saccente.

“We received information that he was involved in drug trafficking,” said Saccente, who added that police then arranged a drug bug from Oliver.

According to police, Oliver arrived at the pre-determined location with 30 bags of suspected heroin in his possession and was arrested.

His son, Jeremiah Oliver, has not been seen since September. Authorities were alerted to his disappearance Dec. 2, when his 7-year-old sister told counselors at Reingold Elementary School in Fitchburg that she was being abused by her mother’s boyfriend and that she had not seen Jeremiah in some time.

Authorities are treating the case as a potential homicide, with Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office alleging that Jeremiah’s two siblings were savagely beaten by Alberto Sierra Jr., 23, and that their mother, 28-year-old Elsa Oliver, did not prevent the abuse.

Sierra has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is being held without bail. Oliver has refused court orders to disclose where her son is and is being held in contempt. She has also pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.

The boy’s disappearance has shaken the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, which has fired three employees—the direct care social worker and two supervisors—for failing to meet their professional responsibility to the Oliver family.

Jose Oliver, who lives in Connecticut, had vowed to appear in Fitchburg Juvenile Court Jan. 10 to seek custody of Jeremiah’s sister and 9-year-old brother, who are currently in a state-administered foster home.

While his previous criminal record included an arrest for possession of heroin and a charge of assault and battery, Jose Oliver insisted in a recent Boston Globe interview that he was a changed man. Oliver acknowledged his history of drug use, he requested that state officials look beyond his past infractions and return his children to him.

“Don’t judge me on my past. People do change,” Jose Oliver insisted in an interview with the Globe last week. “Everybody makes mistakes, man. There’s nobody perfect in this world. The past is the past, let’s leave it there. I’m a new person. I’m older, I’m wiser.’’

Two days after the Globe interview, Oliver was in handcuffs—charged with drug dealing.

It is unclear if the missing boy’s father, who could not be immediately reached for comment, will abandon his attempts to regain custody of his other children as a result of his arrest this week.

www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/01/02/father-missing-fitchburg-boy-arrested-for-allegedly-trafficking-heroin/RImGBmcl17RuUhJCmjhIEM/story.html